


Light Will Guide You Home

by respoftw



Series: Tumblr Prompts - McShep edition [28]
Category: Stargate Atlantis
Genre: Angst, Love Confessions, M/M, Pre-Slash
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-08
Updated: 2020-04-08
Packaged: 2021-03-02 03:20:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 798
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23548282
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/respoftw/pseuds/respoftw
Summary: Prompt:27.“It’s a long story” “You conned me into thinking you were dead for eleven months. I have time.”
Relationships: Rodney McKay/John Sheppard
Series: Tumblr Prompts - McShep edition [28]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/501682
Comments: 12
Kudos: 108





	Light Will Guide You Home

**Author's Note:**

  * For [callunavulgari](https://archiveofourown.org/users/callunavulgari/gifts).



> Title from “Fix You” by Coldplay

“Hi.”

If the door frame hadn’t been right there to hold him up, Rodney would have fallen. There was a ghost at the door, wearing a black, leather jacket and looking better than anyone who was supposed to be dead had any right to look.

“Aren’t you going to invite me in?” John asked.

Rodney slammed the door in his face.

He made it all the way to the kitchen and had just taken the bottle of vodka out of the freezer when John pushed his way into Rodney’s living room.

Rodney unscrewed the cap and took a swallow straight from the bottle.

“Can I get some of that?” John asked. 

God, he sounded just like Rodney remembered, the slow drawl that had haunted his dreams for the better part of the past year. It was too much to take.

Rodney threw the bottle against the wall. 

“I’ll take that as a no, then.” John looked around the small apartment. “You got a broom around here somewhere, buddy?”

_Buddy_.

Rodney couldn’t help the harsh breath of a sob that escaped his throat.

“Rodney.” John’s voice was soft. 

Amadeus, Rodney’s cat, chose that moment to interrupt, miaowing plaintively as he padded towards the kitchen. Shit, the kitchen floor. Rodney moved quickly to intercept, swooping Amadeus up before he hurt himself on the remains of the broken vodka bottle.

“You got a cat.”

“Obviously,” Rodney snapped. 

“Hey,” John sounded relieved, “you can still talk. I was starting to worry.”

“Worried?” Rodney laughed without any amusement. “Well, we wouldn’t want that, would we?”

“Rodney - -“

“No,” Rodney snapped, his voice loud. Amadeus wriggled out his arms and Rodney let him go, making sure that he stayed away from the kitchen. “You seriously think you can just show up at my door and pretend that nothing happened? Just - just, no. What the hell were you thinking?”

John licked his lips, a nervous tic that Rodney had always found amusing. It hit like a punch to the stomach now.

“Can I at least sit down?” he asked. “It’s a long story.”

“You conned me into thinking you were dead for eleven months. I have time.” Rodney remained standing while he gestured for John to sit.

John ignored the offer, rolled his head in frustration. “I didn’t con you. I went on a mission. It was classified, it was my job. It was - -“

“It was hell,” Rodney interrupted, his voice quiet. “It was - -“

“No.” It was John’s turn to be loud. “You were getting married. To Keller. You had a ring and you were going to propose and then you were going to leave Atlantis, you were going to have kids and be happy and - -“

“And then I thought you were dead.” Rodney sighed, sitting heavily on the couch. “I thought you were dead and I couldn’t - - well, you were right about one thing; I left Atlantis.”

John moved to sit next to him. “Keller’s still there. She did my medical when I - 

when I got back. She’s kind of pissed at me. Everyone is.”

“Eleven months, John. We mourned you. We - - did she know? About the mission? The faking your death, the - -“

“No.” John shook his head. “No one knew. Just Woolsey and the IOA. Maybe O’Neill. I - you all had to think I was dead. It was the only way. It needed to be believable.”

Rodney scoffed. “How could you think that wouldn’t kill us? How could you…” he trailed off, unable to find the words to describe the past eleven months.

“You were getting married,” John repeated sadly. “I didn’t know that it would hurt you this much, I,” John choked on a laugh. “I didn’t know.”

Rodney twisted in his seat to look at John. “Didn’t know what?” he said. “Didn’t know you were my best friend? Didn’t know that none of it was the same without you? Didn’t know that an Atlantis without you in it was somewhere I couldn’t stand to stay? Didn’t know that I was stupidly in love with you?”

John swallowed hard. “Didn’t know any of it. Rodney - I - if I had known, if I’d had any idea, I would never have - -“

“I hate you, you know that?”

John nodded. “Yeah, I, ah, I get that.”

“I love you too though, you know that, right?”

John nodded. “Yeah, I’m getting that now. Is it - did I fuck it up?”

Rodney stood and walked to the cupboard, feeling John’s eyes on him as he moved. He opened up the cupboard, pulled out a dustpan and held it out to John. “It’s fixable,” he said. “If you’re willing to try.”

John stood, moved slowly towards him. He reached for the dustpan, his fingers brushing against Rodney’s, sending jolts across his skin. 

“I’ll fix it,” he said. “I promise.”

  
  
  


**Author's Note:**

> I know the whole John on a mission things is vague. I tried to get details in but they wouldn’t fit organically so just know that I do have a whole backstory figured out, lol.


End file.
